The city was finally taken on the twelfth of April 1204, the final assault having lasted three days, but as it was late in the day when the allies got possession of the fortifications they did not venture into the interior of the city until the following morning. It has been estimated that nearly one-half of the city [Sidenote: _1204. Storming of Constantinople, Domenico Tintoretto; Hall of the Great Council._] with all the treasures it contained had been destroyed by the three great fires which had taken place during the preceding months, yet the spoil that remained far exceeded anything recorded in history, and it is not to be denied that both the French and the Venetians committed frightful excesses in the first intoxication of their immense triumph. [Sidenote: _Election of Baldwin, A. Vicentino; same Hall._] The articles of the treaty the victors had made among themselves were strictly observed. The spoil was divided in the manner and proportions stipulated, electors were chosen, and they proceeded to the choice of an emperor. It was but natural that the majority should agree at once upon the Doge Enrico Dandolo, to whose judgment, determination, and personal courage the success of an apparently impossible enterprise was largely due. A force of between thirty and forty thousand men, coming in ships from a distant country and facing every possible strategic disadvantage, had destroyed the Eastern Empire in a few months, and had captured the most strongly fortified city in the world against odds of more than ten to one. From first to last they had been counselled, directed, and led by the aged Doge; assuredly no one was more worthy than he to receive the highest reward and the greatest share of honour. One Frenchman and one Venetian, however, dissented, and it was the Venetian who argued convincingly against Dandolo’s election. He pointed out clearly that the chief magistrate of a free republic [Sidenote: _Dandolo crowns Baldwin, Aliense; same Hall._] could not in conscience be at the same time the despot of an empire, and he advised that Baldwin of Flanders should be chosen instead. The Venetians themselves were easily persuaded of the justice and good [Illustration: VENICE FROM THE LAGOON] sense of this view, and it was forthwith unanimously adopted. The conquerors proceeded next without delay to the dismemberment of the Empire, dividing amongst themselves provinces and cities of which they barely knew, and could not correctly write the names, and omitting many of the very existence of which they were [Sidenote: _Quadri, 127._]